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The material for this book has been gathered from the rich storehouse of Arctic Literature. The chief labour of its composition lay in elimination rather than construction. The great field I have endeavoured to present can hardly be brought with justice to the narrow bounds of a single cover, but I have conscientiously endeavoured to bring to the reader’s mind an accurate record of brilliant deeds that go to make the history of the far North, and have let the explorers themselves tell the story of how these deeds have been accomplished.

Between the lines of their simple language describing stern facts or desperate realities, one reads the character and temperament of the adventurer; one gathers lessons of patience, self-sacrifice, and endurance unsurpassed in the history of mankind, and perhaps appreciates, for the first time, the splendid fibre of which he is made. Stripped of the conventions and luxuries of civilized life, he plunges into the great unknown to fight a relentless war against the greatest foes to his existence,—Cold, Starvation, and Death. Though he may fall by the wayside a victim to the Cause, or crawl home on hands and knees over the rough fastnesses of the frozen wilderness, famishing,—perhaps dying,—the record of his work lives on; the fundamental principles of great character do not perish, but stand through the centuries, a star of hope to the weary traveller on his pilgrimage along the well-trodden pathway of everyday life, and stirs the layman to a better endurance of the burdens and perplexities of the common lot.

It is with pleasure I make grateful acknowledgment to the gentlemen who have accorded me their gracious permission to quote from their works, to Commander Robert E. Peary, to Major-General A. W. Greely, and Sir Allen Young, and to the following publishers and others who, by furnishing material or giving consent to use selected matter, or by kind assistance in other ways, have made my work possible: The American Publishing Company, Hartford, Conn., for selections from “Our Lost Explorers”; D. Appleton & Company for selections from Charles Lanman’s “Farthest North” and Payer’s “New Lands within the Arctic Circle”; The Century Company for selections from General Greely’s article on “The Northwest Passage”; to Clinedinst, Washington, D.C., for permission to reproduce the copyright portraits of Admirals Schley and Melville, General Greely, and Commander Peary; Constable & Company, and E. P. Dutton & Company, Ltd., London, for permission to reproduce the portrait of Amundsen in the latter’s work, “The Northwest Passage”; Doubleday, Page & Company for selections from Commander Peary’s “Nearest the Pole,” and for the portrait of Anthony Fiala and other illustrations from the latter’s work, “Fighting the Polar Ice”; The Encyclopædia Britannica Company for a selection from an article by Markham on “Polar Regions”; to J. Scott Keltie, Esq., editor of the Geographical Journal, for selections from that journal; Houghton; Mifflin Company for selections from “The Voyage of the Jeannette” and Melville’s “In the Lena Delta”; Dodd, Mead & Company for selections from the Duke of Abruzzi’s “On the Polar Star”; Benjamin B. Hampton, Esq., for permission to reproduce photographs of the Peary expedition of 1908 and Commander Peary’s map, and Mr. Hampton and the New York Times for permission to quote Commander Peary’s telegram announcing his discovery of the Pole; the editor of the Illustrated London News for permission to reproduce the portraits of Sir Edward Belcher, Captain Nares, and Commander Markham; Little, Brown & Company for selections from General Greely’s “Handbook of Polar Discoveries”; The London Agency for Ordnance Maps for selections from Sir Allen Young’s “Pandora Voyages”; Longmans, Green & Company for selections from Nansen’s “First Crossing of Greenland” and Sverdrup’s “New Land”; the editor of McClure’s Magazine for a selection from Mr. Baldwin’s article on “The Baldwin-Ziegler Arctic Expedition,” which appeared in that magazine in 1901-1902; Albert Operti, Esq., for permission to reproduce the portraits of W. H. Gilder, Lieutenant Schwatka, Colonel Brainard, Captain De Long, and Lieutenant Lockwood; C. Kegan Paul & Company for a selection from Markham’s “Great Frozen Sea”; G. P. Putnam’s Sons for a selection from Mr. Alger’s article on “Roald Amundsen,” which appeared in Putnam’s Monthly; the editor of the American Review of Reviews for a selection from Mr. McGrath’s article on “Polar Exploration,” which appeared in that magazine; Sampson, Low, Marston & Company, London, for a selection from “German Arctic Expeditions”; Charles Scribner’s Sons for a selection from Schwatka’s “Search,” Greely’s “Three Years’ Arctic Service,” and Schley’s “Rescue of Greely”; F. A. Stokes Company for permission to reproduce illustrations from Commander Peary’s work, “The North Pole,” and for the loan of photographs; and to the same company for selections from Andrée’s “Balloon Expedition” and Peary’s “Northward over the Great Ice.”